SiteMinder announces deal with UK's largest hotel group

Macdonald Hotels & Resorts has signed with online distribution firm SiteMinder to boost its internet exposure.

The agreement sees the 45-strong privately-owned group’s reservation and rate management systems connected with online booking sites around the world.

Macdonald’s Opera ORS central reservations system and its IDeaS revenue management system will be linked with the world’s leading booking sites from SiteMinder’s central cloud application.

SiteMinder UK and Ireland head of sales Bernhard Ballin said hotel groups around the world were under mounting pressure to deliver revenue performance in increasingly competitive markets.

“Since SiteMinder launched in the UK two years ago, we have seen our hotel client portfolio grow rapidly as groups such as Macdonald Hotels & Resorts seek robust and reliable products to streamline their online distribution, improve efficiency and stay ahead of the game,” he said.

“SiteMinder’s Channel Manager will automatically send live availability from Macdonald Hotels & Resorts’ Opera CRS along with rates from IDeaS directly to reservation sites around the world.

“When bookings are made on those sites, the Channel Manager instantly reduces inventory across all their sites and delivers details of all reservations back into Macdonald Hotels’ CRS. This saves hours of manual labour and improves business efficiencies - all while paying a low, flat, monthly fee for the service.”

Macdonald Hotels’ revenue director Stephen Dodman said: “Our decision to work with SiteMinder gives us a reliable, two-way interface to online distribution, delivering real-time availability and inventory across channels, further improving the efficiency of our business and helping to drive revenue performance.

“In addition, SiteMinder will give the guest greater visibility of availability across our hotels in real-time. We have been really impressed by the commitment of the SiteMinder team to meet our tight deadlines and to provide us with a reliable interface in which we can have absolute confidence.”